Project 714 Prayer Focus for October

October 2012 Prayer Focus   Choose wisely.

“if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”  2 Chron 7:14

Election news dominates our televisions, radios, internet news sites, newspapers and magazines.  It seems that this is a choice between the ways of our ancestors who wanted a people who governed themselves in a virtuous way under a very limited government and the constitution.  Alternatively, the ways of a new generation, which seems to prefer being governed by a government that can to do for us what we either do not want to do or cannot do; a government without limits that rules by whatever seems best now.  

Do not think for one moment that the founders of America were perfect; they were not.  They sinned and just as they did mighty things, they sinned mightily.   They and their generations, however, seem to have had one advantage over many in this generation.   They understood that they were sinners, they understood that as man is fallen so too are the works of man.   They also knew some other things that our generations seem to no longer recall, there is a perfect standard of what is good and bad, there is a perfect standard of right and wrong.   However, we are not the first people to have forgotten that.

“ In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”  Judges 21:25

Therefore, the first step we must take in choosing wisely is to remember those perfect standards: of good and bad, of right and wrong and where those standards originate.  

We will hear arguments about tax rates and deficits, about the wealthy and the middle class, about the 1% and the 47%, about war and peace, about spending or cutting.   All of these arguments are important; all of them need to be argued out by the American people.   However, as Christians, there are some arguments that are settled.    Three issues are not open for us to argue.   The first is the issue of the right to life from the womb to the last breath.  Life is a gift from God and is not up to us as a people except in the most extreme of circumstances when one’s own actions surrender that right.  The second unarguable issue is the sanctity of marriage: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24.   And “So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” Matthew 19:6  The third unarguable and nonnegotiable issue is the freedom to exercise our religion, to live out our faith.  This is summed up for us quite well: “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

We are not the first people who had a decision to make about who would lead them.  

Israel Demands a King from Chapter 8 of 1 Samuel:  “…But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.  Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” …..And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them…… However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.” ….. “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. ¹² He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. ¹³ He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. ¹⁴ And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. ¹⁵ He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. ¹⁶ And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men,^[a] and your donkeys, and put them to his work. ¹⁷ He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. ¹⁸ And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.” …. ¹⁹ Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, ²⁰ that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

So as we consider our choices this fall and as we vote next month, let us as Christians recall the old saying from colonial days:  “We recognize no sovereign but God and no king but King Jesus.”   We must remember that our president is no king but a mere man, that while God appoints our president for a season, like the Hebrews of Samuel’s time had a King appointed and anointed by God to rule over them for them for a season.  Our president is not all powerful, he cannot solve our most important problems.    Only the perfect King can do that and it is God who is our perfect King.  Let us not put our president or any elected leader in the place of our God and King.   The Hebrews did that and they got the king they deserved.   All too often, it is said that we elect the president we deserve, just as the Hebrews got the King they deserved.  

Father God, we praise you the Creator God of the universe, the awesome and perfect eternal King.  Father we thank you for your many blessings to our nation and ourselves, you truly are a generous and loving father.   Guide our choices and decisions in the coming weeks as we consider our nation’s leadership, let our choices be your choices, let us be a righteous people, not a self-righteous people, let us be a virtue living people not a virtue speaking people.  Father God, we freely admit that we have not been the people deserving a David, we confess our sins, and humbly beg your forgiveness Father and plead with you that you appoint and anoint a President who will be to us as Hezekiah was to the people of Judah, a just and wise ruler who restored Your laws and temple and who walked in Your ways all the days of his life. 

Walk with God, plow the field He will bring the rain.

Dishonorable Disclosures……. new video by former members of the Special Operations Forces.

I couldn’t believe it a year ago when the White House let out as much information as it did about the take-down of Osama Bin-Laden.   The folks who make that stuff happen evidently are a bit upset and quite rightly so.   Keeping secrets matters.   Dishonorable Disclosures

Taking credit is political, taking the lives and future of the Special Operators and their families in your own hands; is criminal.

Project 714 Prayer Focus for August 2012.

Hi folks, for the past couple of years some friends and I have been embarked on a prayer mission, to find others across the country and to pray at least once a month around a common prayer focus; we call it Project714.com.   I will be cross-posting that prayer focus here each month.

Praying and Perseverance.

“and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.” II Chronicles 7:14 HCSB

This past few weeks have opened many people’s eyes to the drift of many ‘churches’ and the nation away from the truth of God’s word.   Mr. Dan Cathy was interviewed by a reporter for The Biblical Recorder a Baptist Magazine …“Some have opposed the company’s support of the traditional family. “Well, guilty as charged,” said Cathy when asked about the company’s position.
“We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.
“We operate as a family business … our restaurants are typically led by families; some are single. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that,” Cathy emphasized.
“We intend to stay the course,” he said. “We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.”

This ignited a firestorm of controversy, with Mr. Cathy, his corporation, and probably most of us being labeled as hate-mongers because we support the biblical version of traditional marriage.   After reading the entire article, I find it difficult to find hate there.   In fact I find a tremendous amount of love there.   But then hasn’t that always been the way of the world and our enemy Satan, to take truth and to twist it, beginning in the Garden of Eden with Eve “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, Yes, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”  Gen 3:1-3

Our fight with Satan and his lies is constant, ongoing, and persistent.   We have seen too many of our Christian brothers and sisters, especially our younger brothers and sisters fall into the trap of Satan’s lies.  “God is loving and will not condemn anyone to hell.”  In a sense they are right, God won’t; but people will condemn themselves by not accepting the sacrifice of Jesus; The Christ, The Messiah, The Redeemer; on the cross for their sins.   God is Love and He gave His only Son that we might not end in hell.  But God is also perfectly Just and refusal to repent, turn from our wicked ways, and seek His face and to accept his Love, forgiveness, and healing; will result in the justice we all so richly deserve from an awesome, perfect in every way, and holy God.   Interesting isn’t it; that II Chronicles 7:14 fits so nicely into that simple plan for salvation.    “God made me this way…… it can’t be wrong.”   Did God make you that way?   Or has Satan and his lies so corrupted our nature that even God’s perfect plan for companionship has been perverted?   “There are many paths to God”…  this lie ought to be so obvious to us that no one would ever buy into it: “Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.  If you had known me, you should have known my Father also: and from now on you know him, and have seen him.” John 14:6-7

So, how do we fight Satan’s lies and the world’s repeating of them, by boycotting or buycotting?   I suppose once in a while that is a good response by Christians; but the day in  and day out means that we have is prayer.   When David was pursued by Saul, hounded day and night he persevered in prayer, praising and thanking God for his protection and salvation, imploring God for His aid and power.   When the Kingdom of Judah faced destruction at the hands of the Assyrians, Hezekiah and Isaiah called on the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to protect the City of Jerusalem.  When Jesus knew that the Cross was but a few hours away, He prayed for God’s will to be done.   When Peter was in prison, the Church prayed for him and The Lord sent an angel to escort him out of prison.   When I was lost and living a life of sin, my wife prayed and God made His presence so clear to me that I fell on my knees in repentance begging God for the forgiveness that He had already granted me and thanking Him for saving me from my own lies.

Prayer enables us to persevere.  Prayer will illuminate the lies of Satan in our own lives and provide us with the means to shine the light of truth in love on the lies in other’s lives.

Pray for your family and all the families in America, pray that parents persevere in their vows, pray that children persevere in respecting their parents.   Pray for businesses and business leaders that they may encounter the Living God and learn that prayer and promise come before profit.  Pray for our nation’s political and religious leaders that they may see the truth of God’s Word and persevere in seeking God’s will in all things.   Pray for our culture that it may seek God’s face and turn from the lies of Satan and its own wicked ways, repent and become a blessing to the nation by shining forth as a bright light of God’s truth.

Lord, we repent of failing to pray often enough or with enough faith.  Father God, we praise you and thank you for standing ever strong in our defense.   Father fill us with a fervent desire to pray unceasingly, that our lives themselves may become a prayer of action.   Jesus, thank you for teaching us how to pray.  Thank you for praying for God’s will to be done on Calvary as that is the only path we can take that will lead us to You and to Your eternal Kingdom.  Holy Spirit, guide our own prayers to be in God’s will, armor us with the True Word of God against the lies of Satan.

Walk with God, plow the field and He will bring the rain.

the start

 

As I start my blog, one feels that there are many things about to start in America.   The beginnings of a totalitarian fascist regime (look up the definitions of both before you start getting snarky), an escalation in the culture war, another economic crisis, another ugly presidential campaign which is once again the choice between the lesser of two evils and so much more.   But it may also be the start of a national revival, another “Great Awakening” in America.  Yesterday, one could imagine it with the support that was shown by so many across America for the freedom of speech, the freedom of the free exercise of religion and for traditional marriage.  Tuesday saw the people of Texas offered a real choice for the U.S. Senate race in that state.   One could feel it last week in Dallas when 65,000 people assembled to seek national renewal and 35,000 of them embarked on a day of service.    This blog will chronicle that journey either into the abyss or the broad sunlight uplands.